A FORMER Warwick councillor has been jailed for eight months for failing to disclose ownership of a property from which he was receiving rental income after he was made bankrupt.
Sukhi Sanghera, of Lillington, pleaded not guilty at Warwick Crown Court last year to failing to disclose his ownership of a property in Walsgrave Road, Coventry, during bankruptcy proceedings.
But when he returned to the court, following a Covid-enforced delay to his hearing, was jailed for fraud.
The 53-year-old former Conservative councillor for Warwick Myton and Heathcote ward on Warwick District Council had been made bankrupt in August 2019 with debts of over £140,000.
As such, his affairs were passed into the control of the Official Receiver, and he was obliged to disclose all his assets to officials.
But he failed to disclose to trustees that he was the sole owner of the Coventry rental property which
the court was told was in multiple occupancy and yielded a monthly rental income of £1,900.
Glenn Wicks, chief investigator for the Insolvency Service, said: “At multiple points Sukhi Sanghera had the opportunity to be honest and disclose to his trustees that he benefited from a rental property.
“Instead, Sukhi Sanghera went to great lengths to conceal the property in Coventry through fraud and deception to avoid paying his creditors what they were owed.
“The courts have recognised the severity of Sukhi Sanghera’s actions and his custodial sentence demonstrates the risks people take if they don’t declare all their assets when in a bankruptcy process.”
Sanghera had been elected to the district council in May 2019, but in August that year he accepted a ten-year bankruptcy restrictions undertaking.
As a result of that he was disqualified from sitting as a councillor, and a by-election for the seat was held later that year.
Former Warwick councillor Sukhi Sanghera has been jailed.
